Visiting Matsumoto

The next stop on our Japanese odyssey was Matsumoto. So we made our way to Shinjuku station, from where we got the train up to Matsumoto. A couple of hours later, we arrived. Unfortunately the forecast rain was a reality upon arrival, so we decided to start by having an early lunch (always a good idea!).

For choosing our restaurant, we used a method we've found to be good in Japan - just pick a cosy-looking place filled with locals. That's normally a good method in any country (I trust locals to know where to eat more than tourists!) but it seems to work particularly well in Japan. Turned out to be a good approach this time too - the food was delicious and not very expensive either. I also tried a rather unusual local speciality - Hatcinoko (bee larvae) - not bad at all actually (better than the natto I had the other day!).

After that, we headed to the main attraction in Matsumoto - the castle. I'm a big fan of Japanese castles (on previous trips to Japan we visited the ones in Himeji and Kumamoto) - and the Matsumoto is one of the most famous ones in Japan - known as Crow's castle due to its blackened walls. It dates back to the early 16th century - and held an important position during the Edo period, when it was a daimyo's castle.

The castle is very well preserved, and rather stunningly located by a small pond. The interior of the castle doesn't hold that much of interest, but it does show the defensive layout and the way Japanese defence systems work pretty well. So all in all, well worth the visit!

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around and doing a spot of shopping. There isn't much of historic interest in Matsumoto apart from the castle - there are a couple of historic streets by the river, but nothing too exciting. The fact that it was raining put us off a bit too.

This time around, we were staying at a Ryokan  - a traditional Japanese Inn (meaning walking on tatamis in the room, dressing in Yukatas, wearing slippers, sleeping on futons, and so forth. One does have to give up on some of the comforts of Western-style hotels (such as private bathrooms & English speaking staff), but we like the experience.

We decided to apply the same logic to finding our dinner restaurant as for lunch - find a Japanese-seeming place with no tourists and just blunder in. We were a bit less successful this time as there was no English menu, so we asked the embarrassed waiter to choose for us. We were eventually served, and did eat very well too. (actually turned out there was an English speaking menu after all too). All good fun in the end ;-)

Our original plan had been to head to Kamikochi for the day to do a bit of hiking the next day, and go to Takayama for the evening. But due to the contined dodgy weather, we decided to push on to Takayama straight away.